A naval infrared search and track demonstrator and its fusion with other ship sensors

A Naval Infrared Search and Track (IRST) demonstrator has been developed for the UK Ministry of Defence. The system uses two staring infrared cameras and split field of view optics to provide panoramic surveillance of the horizon and has real time processing for detection and tracking. The fusion of IRST and radar sensors offers an improvement in tracking due to their complementary nature. The benefit of integrating an IRST with other sensors has been assessed with simulated and real trials data. The high fidelity simulation begins with infrared scene rendering, followed by addition of targets, atmospheric effects, sensor characteristics and ends with plot extraction. This paper describes the simulation and compares the results with real data gathered with the IRST demonstrator.